The Story
To Bring You Back is a short film about a 6-year-old boy named Kai whose mom has recently passed. Kai is now living alone with his father who is going back to work at his blue-collar job for the first time since his wife's death. Each of them are handling their grieving processes differently; Kai is looking for a sense of familiarity towards his mother in the home while his father is doing all that he can to avoid acknowledging the overwhelming sadness one feels in losing a significant other- this includes emotionally distancing himself from his son. As the film progresses we learn to love Kai as a child beyond grief as he spends time playing with his babysitter, Amelia, who he later confides in about his thoughts towards death. Soon after this conversation Kai's father returns from work and is forced to address the grief that he and his son are sharing. Early the next morning, Kai searches for peace in death on his own.
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Why This Story Now?
When the COVID pandemic first began in the US, all schools shut down. This forced many college students like myself to move back into our childhood homes, where we regressed into the emotional state we were in at the last point of our lives that we lived at home unable to leave. For many people, this meant confronting childhood trauma that they weren't ready to come to terms with, myself included.
When I returned home I was expected to take care of the same responsibilities that I had when I was in my teens, as well as the responsibilities of my college work- now made more difficult online. It was like being a child forced to handle the insane pressures of the adult world. Many people my age felt this way, but many people actually WERE children experiencing the difficulties that adults do. Yes, I was re-living and navigating my way through my own childhood trauma, but when I came home I also began witnessing my 5 year old brother living through what will one day become his childhood trauma.
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Suddenly all schools were closed with no explanation to children. The last time that my brother saw his friends was the last time he would ever see them as far as he was aware. We weren't allowed to visit our grandparents, something we did often, and with a 20-year-old sister who is mute and diagnosed with autism being completely thrown out of her routine, the stress of the household we were locked in was at an all-time high.
Luckily, our loved ones are still living through the pandemic, but many people aren't as lucky. Many children's lives have been completely destroyed through no fault of their own, or even the fault of the adults around them. Once the pandemic ends, society will have to learn how to confront what has happened to us, but it's most important for us to be focusing on the well-being of our children, as they hold the future.
I hope that this film inspires the audience to challenge their own beliefs of what they had learned about change as children and to apply what they learn to their relationships with their own kids and those around them.
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Behind the Scenes
This is a female-led film 10 months in the making. Not only are we facing the challenges that come with making a film on a little-to-no budget, but we're making it from two different states with a very small crew. This is a project that we are all incredibly passionate about and it wouldn't be possible without all of us being hands-on at all times. Many of the props have been hand-made by the crew and endless hours have been put into making this set perfect. With this being said, a lot of time and money has been put into this film to get to where we are now, and more money and time have yet to be put into it with costs of travel, hotel stay, COVID testing, meals for actors and crew, as well as compensation to our actors who will be working full-time days. This story is very important to us, and we want to be sure that we are able to tell it, and are able to pay those who are helping us do so.
Included is our budget. We would be grateful if you would consider donating to our film, and as a thank you we have a variety of perks that you can choose from!
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How Has COVID Affected This Film?
The shooting dates for this film were initially February 5th-14th. As a safety precaution, all crew was tested for COVID 3 days before shooting. We all received our results on the 4th and had to cancel as one of the members of the household that my Assistant Director and I were staying in tested positive. We lost a lot of money and time because of this, as we are on a non-flexible schedule for the film's due date, and the hotel rooms that were purchased for that weekend were non-refundable at that point.
This time around all crew and cast has been asked to self-quarantine for 2 weeks and will be tested for COVID 3 days prior to filming. Onset we will be disinfecting between each scene, all crew will be masked and socially distanced, the cast will be required to do the same when not on camera, all spaces will be properly ventilated, meals will be pre-packaged, and lunch breaks will be longer so that everyone is able to eat without being in direct contact with one another.
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